1. Field of the Invention
Implementations described herein relate generally to devices and, more particularly, to a transmissive and transflective display for devices.
2. Description of Related Art
More and more main displays for devices (e.g., mobile communication devices) are transmissive displays because such displays provide enhanced performance in many areas compared to transflective displays or purely reflective displays. A transmissive display is illuminated from the back by an illumination device/light source (e.g., a backlight), and is viewed from the opposite side (i.e., the front). This type of display may be used in applications requiring high luminance levels (e.g., computer displays, televisions, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, etc.). Unfortunately, the illumination device used to illuminate a transmissive display usually consumes much more power than the display.
One solution to this problem is to make the display reflective or transflective. A reflective display (e.g., often found in digital watches or calculators) is illuminated by external light reflected by a diffusing reflector located behind the display. Although the absence of an illumination device reduces power consumption in a reflective display, the contrast on such displays is typically poorer than on transmissive displays. A transflective display works as either a transmissive display or a reflective display, depending on the ambient light. For example, a transflective display operates in a reflective mode when external light levels are high, and in a transmissive mode in darker environments via a backlight. Unfortunately, transflective displays fail to provide a good transmissive mode or a good reflective mode when it comes to utilization of the pixel area as compared to pure transmissive displays and pure reflective displays.